Week 6 – Recovering a Sense of Abundance

This week we are asked to really look at our ideas around God, money, and creative abundance. This week may feel volatile. After the anger that I went through week before last I hope not, but at least I know I’m growing. This week in our morning pages we are asked to write about the god you do believe in and the god you would like to believe in. I’m realizing that is a little harder than it sounds as the God I believe in as evolved over the years. That is definitely going to be more than a one day assignment for me. I love it when she says:

Looking at God’s creation, it is pretty clear that the creator itself did not know when to stop. There is not one pink flower, or even fifty pink flowers, but hundreds. Snowflakes, of course are the ultimate exercise in sheer creative glee. No two alike. This creator looks suspiciously like somone who just might send us support for our creative ventures.

How very true her words are; I wanted to add an exclaimation point at the end of every sentence! As you expect God to be more generous, God will be able to be more generous to you. I love it! Ask and you shall receive as the Bible says.

What is luxury? What constitutes pampering? Did any of the examples speak to you? The one that spoke to me was about TIME. He has denied himself the luxury of time: time with friends, time with family, above all, time to himself with no agendas of preternatural accomplishment. His many former passions have dwindled to mere interests, he is too busy to enjoy pastimes. He tells himself he has not time to pass. The clock is ticking and he is using it to get famous. I totally identified with that paragraph. I may not be using my time to get famous but I am using it to get somewhere I hope to be in the future. I have very much fallen to the vulnerability of all artist, even very famous ones, to the shaming, “I should be working” side of themselves that discourages creative pleasures.

What gives us true joy? That’s something I’m going to have to work on this week. I’m really not sure at the moment! I think it’s taking pictures. I am really enjoying that but is that true joy I’m not sure. I’m going to have to think on it.

Bottom line – Julia is telling us to question whether we’ve put a limit on God and what we allow Him to do for us. She sums it up nicely when she says:

What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.